U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,098, which issued Aug. 2, 1977 discloses a video tape editing system for on-line or off-line editing of a cassette or open-reel helical scan type video tape recorder, or the like. Tape-to-tape editing is carried out in the system by transferring selected video information from a playback video tape recorder to a record video tape recorder; and camera-to-tape editing is carried out in the system by transferring selected video information directly from a video camera to the record video tape recorder. The system described in the patent includes a solid state electronic control for the playback and record video tape recorders, with manually operated joysticks which permit forward and reverse motion of the tapes in the recorders in the vicinity of the edit frames for the precise selection of the edit frames.
The video tape editing system described in the patent fulfills a growing need in the television industry for a practical means to permit accurate and rapid editing of video tapes, so that a finished edited master tape may be assembled from the video information on one or more original tapes, or directly from a video camera. The system described in the patent fulfills the aforesaid needs, in that it is capable of interfacing both the cassette and open-reel types of helical scan video tape recorders for precise tape-to-tape or camera-to-tape editing.
The computer of the present invention, as described briefly above, constitutes an accessory for video tape editing systems, of the type disclosed in the patent, to provide automatic timing and search features, as will be described.